slang

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect.

n. Language peculiar to a group; argot or jargon: thieves' slang.

intransitive v. To use slang.

intransitive v. To use angry and abusive language: persuaded the parties to quit slanging and come to the bargaining table.

transitive v. To attack with abusive language; vituperate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. Language outside of conventional usage.

n. Language that is unique to a particular profession or subject; jargon.

n. The specialized language of a social group, sometimes used to make what is said unintelligible to those not members of the group; cant.

v. To vocally abuse, or shout at.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

imp. of sling. Slung.

n. Any long, narrow piece of land; a promontory.

n. A fetter worn on the leg by a convict.

n. Low, vulgar, unauthorized language; a popular but unauthorized word, phrase, or mode of expression; also, the jargon of some particular calling or class in society; low popular cant

transitive v. To address with slang or ribaldry; to insult with vulgar language.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To use slang; employ vulgar or vituperative language.

To address slang or abuse to; berate or assail with vituperative or abusive language; abuse; scold.

n. An obsolete or archaic preterit of sling.

n. A narrow piece of land. Also slanket.

n. The cant words or jargon used by thieves, peddlers, beggars, and the vagabond classes generally; cant.

n. In present use, colloquial words and phrases which have originated in the cant or rude speech of the vagabond or unlettered classes, or, belonging in form to standard speech, have acquired or have had given them restricted, capricious, or extravagantly metaphorical meanings, and are regarded as vulgar or inelegant.

n.Synonyms Slang, Colloquialism, etc. See cant.

n. Among London costermongers, a counterfeit weight or measure.

n. Among showmen: A performance.

n. A traveling booth or show.

n. A hawker's license: as, to be out on the slang (that is, to travel with a hawker's license).

"Slang, though humanly irreverent, tends to be inhumanly loveless. It lacks tenderness and compassion; its poetry has the effulgence of a soldier's brass buttons." Anthony Burgess, New York Times, July 12, 1970.